Team - One of the most immediate differences is I've worked in relatively small teams before (10-20 people) Whilst my immediate team is around the same size in my new role, the overall structure of all of our staff is much larger. We're located across four sites, in three separate divisions (Academic Services -where I fall-, Customer Services and Digital Services) Needless to say, there was quite a lot to get my head around when I first started (so many faces and names, not to mention the many acronyms floating about) but I feel like I've got to grips with it now.
Enquiry work - I've always loved this aspect of my working day and this hasn't changed since starting in my new role. I've come to this job from an NHS/academic library and prior to that I worked in a government information service. Therefore, the biggest difference work wise has been that I was previously used to (in a very general sense) more subject specific enquiries... As a graduate trainee I'd be running about answering pqs, FOI enquiries, searching Hansard and more. As a library assistant I'd be answering basic enquiries on medical related subjects. Now, whilst I'm working within a specific faculty in the University, I'm based on an enquiry desk where student's from any faculty can come and ask me for help. Before I started the post in December, one of my worries was 'I'm supposed to know where to find the answer to a students question, what if I don't know, or have no idea how to go about finding out?!'
However, I've found my worries to be (mostly) unfounded. Whilst I'm aware my wider knowledge of certain subject areas does need to be improved, I've found I've known more about where to start then I originally thought and the skills that I've built up in all my past experience have been invaluable. As a trainee, I dealt with a lot of enquiries from members of the general public where we could literally be asked anything (and we did have some very random enquiries) so it's been about applying the same techniques I used when answering these. I have to admit, I do love the element of surprise of not knowing what I'm going to be asked and tracking down the answer. It's also helped to have members of the team only a phone call away if needed.
I also experienced a mild feeling of panic the first time I logged onto our online chat service and it went ‘ping' ('o.m.g. need to type really fast and give the student instant information. right.now. quick. quick. quiccckkkk.') It's a service I've never had any experience in before. In practice, it's actually really fun. Online chatting and keeping the balance between being both friendly and professional (at all times, even when the student is chatting to you in the same way that they would to their mates -txt spk etc-) has been a good skill to pick up as well as recognising when queries need to be looked into further and would be better answered face to face. Online chat is not always the best solution.
Teaching - Again, this is something I have only had basic experience in prior to my new role. In recent months, I've been grabbing any chance I can to help out and shadow teaching sessions in various subject areas. It's been great for me to be able to pick up on how the different faculty's work and how the teaching styles of my colleagues differ. I've definitely picked up a few tips. I'll now be gradually taking on the organisation of planning and running teaching sessions for my subjects, teaching study skills workshops and also providing one to one in depth appointments.
Students - There's such a diverse community of students here, all with differing needs/levels of ability. In particular, there are many more international students than at my previous places of work and a large cohort of distance learners (as far as Trinidad!). Helping with future plans to develop our services to meet their needs has sparked a particular interest with me. With the rise in student fees, international student numbers will not only increase but expectations of the services we provide will also rise. I'm looking forward to getting involved in this, particularly international student orientation week.
Collection management - I now have much more responsibility in terms of spending dosh. I was in charge of a budget as a graduate trainee, but haven't done much more since. It was slightly daunting at first then, having to make the call myself about purchasing items, but I'm gradually feeling more confident about it all. Having some guidelines to go by has obviously helped, as has looking back at the set procedure behind it all. So now I spend quite a bit of my time deciding what goes on our shelves for my subjects, how many copies of the items we buy, hunting down eBooks, making sure reading is correct and up to date and getting rid of items and editions we no longer need.
Faculty liaison - Something else new for me is that I'm now much more in contact with academic staff. Aside from just chatting to them on the enquiry desk, I now have to 'officially' liaise. So I'm sitting in on programme subcommittees (a bit of an eye opener), going to a whole host of meetings as well as keeping in regular contact with them via email and the VLE. Which leads me to another major difference I've found...a definite step up in my emails in terms of how many I'm sent a day. Phewww! My time management skills are definitely going up a notch!
Project work - Another big part of my new role. I'm getting involved in all sorts, including working with our Graduate Trainee to put together our staff shadowing scheme, working on the staff conference committee and looking at improving our information literacy project.
One of the nicest aspects is that as a 'trainee', I feel very well supported by my team and the building up of taking on tasks means I feel as though I'm learning the ropes nice and thoroughly. There's also a big focus on staff development here which is great. I'm going to be attending LILAC this year for the first time and have got lots of events I'm going to be attending lined up (which I'll hopefully be blogging).
So all in all, I'm really enjoying the challenges of my new job. Watch this space!
So all in all, I'm really enjoying the challenges of my new job. Watch this space!
